Disabled and Dying In the World of Plenty

A Guest Post by Fido

After looking at my meager Social Security Disability check and looking outside of my front door of my hole-in-the-wall apartment, I wondered: Is this it? I mean what is the point of a pointless struggle. The medical system clearly neither values nor cares about my life.

I have an decrepit computer, a stale cup of coffee that doesn’t taste good because the brand is third rate, and I am up to my ears in real debt. It is simply the life of a disabled person in the first world. Isolated in the disability ghetto of low income, run-down, drug and booze infested universes. Most of my fellow “inmates” here are either too mentally unstable to have any idea what is going on, or they are senile. It’s a version of the old bard’s poem about the seven ages of man. I am one of the few members of this ghetto to have any education beyond the eighth grade. Many of my fellow inmates are lazy or pregnancy dropouts.

Jim Kunstler complains in his various rants about the total loss of adulthood in the modern world of American meritocracy. It is clear however that many of the residents of the universe that I live in have never achieved adulthood. They make the jump from the second age of man to the last age of man in one swoop. I saw this transition occur to a young man who had completed high school and had aged out of the special education system into a world that he is totally unprepared to live in as an adult. He does not have the skill set to be gainfully employed in any fashion because he has not been taught to be an adult. So, he drifts from one social welfare system to the next. The last stage of man is when one loses any status in the system and goes back to the same sounds of infancy. When it comes to the simple and complete fraud that has been played on the people, perhaps the most disgusting one is the one played on those least able to cope with it. The young man reverts back in status and becomes for all intents and purposes, an infant again.

What will they tell the people and how will they spin it ?

My own theory is that we will have some sort of special broadcast or series of announcements that, at the last possible moment, will seek to avert panic or chaos. Of course, this will fail because someone will finally say that the emperor has no clothes and at that moment all hell will break loose. Emergency powers won’t work because there are too many armed and crazed people out there with AK 47’s, M 16’s, and Uzi’s to control. Like the hapless Iraqi information minister, the person who is stuck with telling the people the truth will become an infamous figure in the history of the so-called democracy. As far as the truth is concerned, the truth be dammed. The federal authorities will just simply melt away. My guess is that even the richest bastard will eventually be overwhelmed by the masses of poor hungry and armed to the teeth citizenry. What is even more likely is a super bug designed by the CIA or Homeland Security to depopulate the unwashed masses while TPTB get vaccinated against it. A 80 to 90 percent fatality rate would reduce the world population to more manageable levels. God bless us all; and for all the others… ****

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87 Responses to Disabled and Dying In the World of Plenty

First of all I am wondering who wrote this and then am guessing certain visitors to the site and then am thinking most of us could have written it because although not waiting for a miserable disability check we are all waiting for something. That’s it the wait. Waiting for the next shoe to drop, for the next lie and all hell will break loose and history will be made. We all here did not come down with yesterdays rain and have seen it all and still it surprises how despicable things have come. An absolute uselessness permeates the air. People walk with that 1000 yard stare, seeing and not seeing. Well whoever wrote it did a very good job of telling it like it is everywhere. Good writing.

I work in budget, and so of course get involved in all of the various ongoing “downsizing for efficiency” schemes that management is constantly drawing up. Two observations, neither particularly surprising: 1.) It’s ALWAYS by definition a bottoms up exercise. As in, the actual workers (lowest paid) go first, while the TRUE costs savings of useless high dollar management is overlooked, and 2.) The enthusiasm with which my colleagues (some of the lowest paid people up here) participate in the exercises is TRULY remarkable, given that our own organizational managers could very well be considering US for elimination as well!

Bottom line, never underestimate the human proclivity for 1.) protecting they and theirs, and 2.) seeking the approval of (kissing the ass of) their betters. All of which has been said better by minds much sharper than mine.

Dogs (Waters, Gilmour) 17:06

You gotta be crazy, you gotta have a real need.
You gotta sleep on your toes, and when you’re on the street,
You gotta be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed.
And then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight,
You gotta strike when the moment is right without thinking.

And after a while, you can work on points for style.
Like the club tie, and the firm handshake,
A certain look in the eye and an easy smile.
You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to,
So that when they turn their backs on you,
You’ll get the chance to put the knife in.

You gotta keep one eye looking over your shoulder.
You know it’s going to get harder, and harder, and harder as you
get older.
And in the end you’ll pack up and fly down south,
Hide your head in the sand,
Just another sad old man,
All alone and dying of cancer.

And when you loose control, you’ll reap the harvest you have sown.
And as the fear grows, the bad blood slows and turns to stone.
And it’s too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw
around.
So have a good drown, as you go down, all alone,
Dragged down by the stone.

I gotta admit that I’m a little bit confused.
Sometimes it seems to me as if I’m just being used.
Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake off this creeping malaise.
If I don’t stand my own ground, how can I find my way out of this
maze?

Deaf, dumb, and blind, you just keep on pretending
That everyone’s expendable and no-one has a real friend.
And it seems to you the thing to do would be to isolate the winner
And everything’s done under the sun,
And you believe at heart, everyone’s a killer.

Who was born in a house full of pain.
Who was trained not to spit in the fan.
Who was told what to do by the man.
Who was broken by trained personnel.
Who was fitted with collar and chain.
Who was given a pat on the back.
Who was breaking away from the pack.
Who was only a stranger at home.
Who was ground down in the end.
Who was found dead on the phone.
Who was dragged down by the stone.

I’m guess I’m just an Englishman at heart. ALWAYS loved me some ‘Floyd, from ‘Meddle’ forward at least. ‘Animals’ in particular came at a hard time for me. Just out of high school in the late 70’s when the full realization that my parents warning were true after all: the world DIDN’T owe me a living and didn’t give three shits whether or not I lived or died. And ‘Dogs’, in addition to the ubiquitous GREAT guitar stylings, pointed that out in vivid detail like few songs of the time (remember, this was the absolute HEIGHT of the disco craze) dared to. Fortunately (or not?), I joined the US Army shortly thereafter and got a refresher in the concept of trading one’s soul to the devil for mere survival (where I had A LOT of company!).

And, of course, the ‘proof in the pudding’ is, as always TIME (hmm… ‘Floyd addressed that TOO!), which ‘the Floyd’ has DEFINITELY withstood. Matter of fact, if I had to bet on who’s still relevant in 2076, I’d have to say this group and this album CERTAINLY makes the short list.

It’s amazing how accurate and timely their songs are in this age of corruption. I was listening to the song “Have a Cigar” and suddenly it occurred to me that it could just as well be about being recruited by a Wall Street or law firm in modern day American where you are told everything will go you way so long as you play the game…..

I dropped out befor the adult was wiped clean. Takes guts to do the unconventional. Of course I was 22 just a babe in the rough. Just out of school with a useless degree but I knew what I was getting from the getgo. Of course what I did learn was how little I knew about myself. So I decided it was time to explore the physica realms, enough with the world of books and discussion groups , So, was time to get comfortable and confident in the skin and doing many things to feel good about myself. Self employment is a scary hard road least traveled by most.

What I have learned the most is that ultimately we are permanently on a beach all building our own sort of castles/dungeons in the sand. We have the choices, and they’re presented to us for a short moment in our youth and so few make the youthful idealistic choices reality. What ever we have chosen will more then likely be washed away once, twice, maybe a third time if we’re lucky or unlucky. Point is that there’s nothing permanent about anything the only problem is that our reference in time is out of wack. Least not forget that change is always upon us

What I have learned the most is that ultimately we are permanently on a beach all building our own sort of castles/dungeons in the sand. We have the choices, and they’re presented to us for a short moment in our youth and so few make the youthful idealistic choices reality.

Thanks for the reminder Cliff. I’m perpetually “almost there but not quite.” I actually have the means (marginally) to make a clean break, but, having been conditioned to be a yard dog all of my life, am just too scared to walk out the gate. And granted, the choices do get tougher the longer you wait, but most of those same youthful choices remain at least partially available until the very end. One thing I do know now is that unless I break out of my current cage I will judge my life as completely wasted at the end of it. Fortunately, my subconscious may very well betray me. My performance at work is now so admittedly erratic that the Beast may very well do me the favor of expelling me in the near future.

I think the breaking point for the masses in general will be the realization that the social safety net has been completely dismantled (I’ll give it another ten years or so, if that), while the corporate sphere is only interested in profits over people (already here). Once the realization that the game is truly rigged against them and that they’re damned to poverty and misery whether they participate or not gains mass acceptance, it will be game over for global corporate capitalism and the feral human will make his/her return. But like the feral hogs now plaguing much of the US, the remaining marginally rich may want to sit up and take notice. Them ferals are some tough, destructive critters, and they don’t respect property lines or rights.

every once in awhile i pay attention, such was the case with a recent talk by Guy McPherson.
there are over 450 nuclear plants in the world, Russia is building 2 nuke ice-breakers, and then there are the warships built for battle (nothing can go wrong there).
i have come to the conclusion that every nuclear device on the planet should be shut down immediately, the technology is just too dangerous. coal plants, gas plants, gasification, all these can be left untended and they will power down, not so with nukes, left untended they melt down, catastrophically.
we don’t know what to do with the waste, the byproducts are used as weapons, nuclear power is the worst idea ever to come down the pike. i’ll take the pollution any day over radioactive waste that doesn’t cool down for 100,000 years. of course we would be better off with neither.
now PBS is flogging the latest pro-nuke screed.http://pandoraspromise.com/
yeah well, it ain’t gonna just be Jesus weeping, or the Buddha, or the Great Mother, your choice, or none at all.
the nuclear menace is real and the powers that be want to ramp it up, keep all their surveillance eqpt. humming along, thank you very much.

sorry Fido, it’s tough, but you hang in there. myself, i drag my ass thru the day, have a bunion that is killing me, hip hurts, can hardly walk anymore. but while there is work i will be there, can’t afford to take off to get things fixed, and i guess i’m one of the lucky ones. funny, i don’t feel lucky.

you hang in there, if it’s any solace, you aren’t the only one, you’re not alone.

what i think is most evident in fido’s post is not if, but when. i struggle with this daily, knowing that i have skills to contribute, but still require massive refinement. and even though i’m completely outside of the system, i can’t seem to proceed.
the ‘liberal’ approach of ‘sustainable’ this and that is a farce, as the libs want their urban farms and ipods, without skipping a beat.
the conservatives are by now mostly neo-cons, who want, what?… blow up the world?
so then, what is than answer? bring it all down instantaneously, and game on?
if we lived in a sane world, there would be solutions. but we don’t.

And most of us on the inside of the system desperately want out. Believe me, being inside the system is nothing to aspire to. The last great illusion – the belief that technology will save us – is still to be dispelled. When it is, it will indeed be game on!

Left the tab open so I could see “Disabled and Dying” as I worked on other things. Left it open all night so I could be reminded, not shut it down, not shut it out. Like the others, I don’t know who the writer is, but I hear the stark reality, and he asks nothing from us.

In some way or another, most of us depend on an indifferent bureaucracy for support. Your point that so many have never reached adulthood is accurate and poignant, and not limited to those populations you described. Ours is a culture of adolescence true self-determination is not encouraged. We are left, in our schools, in our politics, in our communities, with few who can look beyond the self to live responsibly and compassionately. The scenario you describe of the ill-equipped young man aging out of services highlights in neon the issues of false care and dependence.

ObamaCare in particular – put into place to totally eclipse the possibility for a truly universal system – puts an exclamation point on it all. Rather than universal healthcare, we got almost universal health “insurance.” And of course anyone who has dealt with the Health Insurance racketeers knows there’s a WORLD of difference.

The future is one of debt slavery for the one’s unfortunate enough to live to see it. The phrase “…and the living will envy the dead,” comes to mind.

Thanks for the post Fido. I too have been dependent on what is essentially government welfare my whole life, first for the US War Machine, and now with a pension check from same, a second job with a contractor to the US Energy Machine, itself a direct supplier to the War Machine. Been a point of psychological distress (cognitive dissonance) my whole life. Of course my family and friends have applauded my stupidity all along the way, which has only made it all the worse for me. In a society where honor holds sway, such behavior would prompt ritual suicide as a means to restore honor, which I plan to do someday when the money runs out. But until then, I’m as cowardly in the face of the Beast as anyone out there.

What I see for the future is the continued development of a fortress society, where the rich withdraw into enclaves protected by private security forces (highly paid sycophants), while the rest of us are left to cannibalize each other. In an age of diminishing natural resources, that is the most logical strategy given the “inconvenient truth” that maybe 90% of the current world population must be sacrificed for the good of the remaining 10%. In that sense, control over the masses will be a non-issue and actually counter productive. An out of control population with its rage focused where it always is – on each other – is actually the desired state. The idea that survivalist individuals and groups will just be “defending what is theirs” is recognized for the bullshit it has always been. In any crisis worth the name, they will be turning their arms on each other as the resources run out, and that has been the plan all along.

As to biting the hand that feeds and attacking the mega-wealthy? Not going to happen. The national security apparatus to prevent it is already locked into place and humming along quite nicely, even with the occasional burp, manned largely by the very same people who it will eventually turn on and destroy (and many of whom will sacrifice themselves “for the greater good” gladly). Gotta admire the ingeniousness of it all. This was all no mere high school science project. A lot of very clever people have devoted their entire lives to it, and it’s bigger than all of us now.

The only hope that some of these sycophants will start to think why do I need to be dependent on this rich clowns and organised a revolt so to speak and do away with Mr. and Mrs 1% and take over the reins and then perhaps they that are left with all the loot will start to fight and steal among themselves, which by the way happened when pirates who had a real democracy going until they got bored and started stealing their mates booty. So maybe all this planning will only work as long as there are enough money grubbing mercenaries that will bow down to wealth and give them the power. Eventually though it will not last. But by the time this all comes to pass we will have evolved back to nomadic hunter gatherers having formed small units of friends and family that cooperate and learn to rely on each other without the big man concept of leadership. Probably wishful thinking but hell why not?

Assuming Climate Change (or something else) doesn’t render all of our speculations moot, I think you’ve got it about right. Human motivations being what they are currently, the elite power structure will probably implode at some point too, but that will be long after I’ve moved on to whatever’s next. Just hope I don’t come back as one of the young, but that’s entirely possible.

My objective in this commentary was to provoke discussion as to the fate of all of us. When we face an inhuman, morally bankrupt and murderous system that seems to want to enslave us all, what do we do ? How do we deal with a system that is so wrong. The young man in the story is as common as apple pie. The great fraud is that we claim to have an education system, but we don’t we have a druggie system, a medical system and a prison system. Our next story is about the evil of the system and the fact that we don’t have the answers or a clue of what is really going on. All we can do is to make educated guesses.

We’ve been trained since we were young by our education and religious systems to believe in the power and legitimacy of national hierarchical systems. And for many of us, for most of our lives they have even worked. But now that the end game is beginning to play out, as it inevitably was going to do no matter what, the fraud behind those systems is being laid bare for all to see. The cognitive dissonance for those faced with rejecting those cherished long-held belief systems is palpable already (Tea Party anyone?) and will no doubt get much worse before it gets better, and it’s that despair and disillusionment played out large on the world stage that will be our greatest danger in the years to come. The center failing to hold and all that… Interesting times ahead!

“…since we were young by our education and religious systems to believe in the power and legitimacy of national hierarchical systems”

Exactly right! Rodolfo Acuna wrote an insightful article about our Thanksgiving tradition as an example of State control:

Almost everyone is grateful for the day off. Merchants love Thanksgiving. It is the perfect opening act for Christmas.

The ritual of sitting down with the family to eat cheap turkey, chucked full of hormones, has been immortalized by Norman Rockwell. It is a day when you eat cheap turkeys and hams and everyone can pig out.

Not much thought is given to the truth of the narrative. Kids just want their four day relief from school, and parents are smug in the belief that the colonist and the Indians lived in peace. The only ones that care about changing the narrative are Native Americans who call it a National Day of Mourning.

I call Thanksgiving “El Día de los Pendejos” (The Day of the Fools). I tell my students to enjoy making graveyards out of their stomachs that they fill with the flesh of turkeys that have been held prisoners in small dirty cages.

Why do I call the Indians fools? Because they should have let the Pilgrims starve.

Few people know that the tradition of Thanksgiving was invented during the Civil war by President Abraham Lincoln in October 1863 when he proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday. Thereafter, the myth of the Pilgrims and the Indians was constructed.

The story is known by almost every American. For twelve years, from K-12, they learn the story of that in the early autumn of 1621 fifty-three surviving Pilgrims celebrated a successful harvest. The natives joined the celebration and instead of attacking the Pilgrims they made peace.

The Indians were thanked: their land was stolen from them, they were massacred, and many lived out their lives in slavery. The consequence is that less than one percent of Americans have Native American blood, contrasted to 90 percent of Mexican Americans with indigenous blood.

It is difficult to change the narrative because most Americans love their myths, and they love their cheap turkey. They want to believe the lie that makes them feel exceptional.

By the way, that superbug idea is an interesting one. I’m sure the authorities have it on their list of options. It has the great advantage of offering full deniability as well, especially if used in conjunction with (in the fog of) some other sort of natural disaster (Tsunami, earthquake, volcanic eruption, hurricane, nuclear exchange, or whatever…). Hmm…

How long should we wonder, worry, ponder, fates, sit back and watch everything unfold?
Kind of like waiting for the water to boil, seems like an eternity. So if we all lived in a perfect world what would we choose to do? Now there’s a good question.

My question is What is a perfect world? I know we all have our own particular fantasies of what is a good life to live. But ever since we decided to enter into sedentarization ( a new word for me so I gotta use it), we have done nothing but compromise and been “reasonable,” and allow others to lead us down the yellow brick road. It is now time to quit playing follow the leader and kick the can down the road right into to the glaring black hole of wonder, magic, and most of all fun. The hell with playing the game that everything we do is soooo serious and important. It is all BS anyway so pick your spot and enjoy.

Funny you should mention that word. I’ve been dwelling on that very subject lately too. It’s becoming more and more apparent to me lately that I am simply GOING CRAZY at my cubicle computer job. I can’t stand offices, I can’t stand the PC culture now dominated by women and feminine sensibilities (the passive/aggressive corporate office culture is positively malignant!), I can’t stand the subtle monkey see, monkey do dress cues you must send, and I can’t stand the lack of physical activity all day. I recently got back into cars again (of all things) and am rediscovering the raw physical energy of my youth. Needless to say, it’s like a complete reawakening for me, so much so that I’m now considering a complete lifestyle/career change, a decision that might just get made for me if I keep it up. Of course there’s the little matter of being nearly impossible to make decent money working with your hands/back/sweat of your brow these days, but I’m not sure that’s a sufficient reason form me not to pursue it anyway anymore. I call it the bitchification of America, and some of us just plain ain’t cut out to be bitches. Besides, I look terrible in a skirt and heels.

What is a perfect world?
a painting.http://www.peterhalley.com/ARTISTS/PETER.HALLEY/1990-94.Index.htm
done 20 years ago, it’s about as close as you’re going to get.
but seriously, we have no guide but nature, and we are nature.
walls, cells, conduits, prisons, not the least the prison of our own minds, the curse of sentience, the knowledge of good and evil. which of course leads us to inexorably to differentiation, and judgement of the other.
we are caught in a tangled web, change one part of it, it ripples into another.
while Sunday shows babble about how Twitter has changed politics, somewhere in the world someone is walking 5 miles with a 5 gallon bucket to draw the water for the day.
and the bucket left over from some construction project or another is an improvement over a breakable fired clay vessel.

before modern technology came along simply storing food for the winter was the most important task for hunter gatherer societies. we may think there was a primordial Eden, but that is our Judeo-Christian mythology. yes, primitive people may have been bigger and stronger, they may have been more egalitarian, but no doubt they too had their own rules, customs, rites of passage and so forth.

the use of fossil fuels, refrigeration, the entire gamut of conveniences were eagerly embraced by our fore bearers precisely because they knew how hard it was to put food on the table.

yeah well, that’s this mortal coil. maybe the best thing to do is just to forget about it, especially if you are of a certain age, the children have no illusions, not those with any understanding.

Let the day grow on you
Upward
Through your feet,
The vegetal knuckles,

To your knees of stone,
Until by evening you are a
Black tree;
Feel, with evening,
the swifts thicken your hair,
The new moon rising out of
Your forehead,
And the moon lit veins of silver
Running from your armpits
Like rivulets under white
Leaves.

> how hard it was
But it wasn’t. (That’s the curriculum speaking.)
• “The life of an Indian is a continual holiday…” ~Thomas Paine
• “When an Indian Child has been brought up among us, taught our language and habituated to our Customs, yet if he goes to see his relations and make one Indian Ramble with them, there is no perswading him ever to return, and that this is not natural [to them] merely as Indians, but as men, is plain from this, that when white persons of either sex have been taken prisoners young by the Indians, and lived a while among them, tho’ ransomed by their Friends, and treated with all imaginable tenderness to prevail with them to stay among the English, yet in a Short time they become disgusted with our manner of life, and the care and pains that are necessary to support it, and take the first good Opportunity of escaping again into the Woods, from whence there is no reclaiming them. One instance I remember to have heard, where the person was brought home to possess a good Estate; but finding some care necessary to keep it together, he relinquished it to a younger Brother, reserving to himself nothing but a gun and a match-Coat, with which he took his way again to the Wilderness. Though they have few but natural wants and those easily supplied. But with us are infinite Artificial wants, no less craving than those of Nature, and much more difficult to satisfy…” ~Benjamin Franklin
• “Food resources were ‘both varied and abundant,’ particularly the energy rich mangetti nut – ‘so abundant that millions of the nuts rotted on the ground each year for want of picking’… ‘Why should we plant, when there are so many mongomongo nuts in the world?'” ~The Original Affluent Society, Marshall Sahlins
> conveniences were eagerly embraced
Alcohol and Krokodil (dihydrodesoxymorphine) too. Humans are novelty seekers, not rationalist economic calculators.
How Beer Created Civilizationhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/frederickallen/2010/11/09/how-beer-created-civilization/

I Second the motion and add: The only future we have in front of us is the path we choose(create) no matter what your age or disability many things could be possible.

A lot of us are shackled and mentally disabeled , worker drones that have been told by the culture(queen bee) that following the status quo would give you what you want and it obviously did not pan out. The old models are no longer feasible. What’s left is a brave new world. We’re out on a limb now and no more guide lines. So how does one jump
after years of cervitude? How does one begin to think outside the box and take appropriate action. One baby step at a time probably.

The residual admiration for Hitler among the extreme right-wingers of today derives mainly from the simple fact that the man actually did what he said he would do. You can’t overstate the potential hunger for that sort of thing.

That, in a nutshell, is why people historically reject the Democrats and embrace the Republicans, even when they’re demonstrably insane. And I think he’s definitely right. The rejection of Obama and his sycophants in 2016 is going to be historical, and the swing to the right will be even harder than it was post Jimmy Carter.

i wouldn’t be too sure about that swing, my money is still on the dragon lady.
but that’s not what worries me, oh no, it’s how they do it……………….
the plain fact is that our govt. is fascist and has been for 100 years, if not longer.
so sorry, i don’t think people are seeing the forest for the trees.
an argument can be made that Selective Service is fascist, just as an for instance.
something that half the population has never had to worry about, but they will, it’s part of the package.
i can’t argue that it’s not getting worse.
govt. and big business are Siamese twins, the ACA is the most egregious, personal info on every citizen under the aegis of govt. but done by private corps. (cat’s paws of the ruling class). and oh yes, forcing citizens to participate in a for profit enterprise.
yo, i could be even more hard-edged, but i would prefer not to be censored.
but seriously, why did i lose my faith?
sure, it’s my own reality, i control my life, sure, sure, it’s a vibratory thing.

why, isn’t it pleasant just sitting right here?

fascism is not confined to any political or moral belief, it is way too easy to blame the right wing when it is absolutely clear the supposed left has not done their homework.

I think the so-called “left” (the moderate “right” these days) is actually by far the greater of the two evils. I still can’t imagine anyone supporting the Dragon Lady though. The hatred for her on both sides of the spectrum is visceral, while her supporters are for the most part just lukewarm (liberals are notoriously indifferent to the hard work of political activism and unfocused even when they aren’t). Not to mention she seems to be growing fatter and less attractive by the hour these days. On top of that, I think it’s over for the Boomers in general now politically anyway. Youthful, energetic, and telegenic is where it’s at these days. But you never know.

As for the ACA, I’m not sure that will survive Obama at this point. Nor should it. A complete abomination, it’s done its job as the great discreditor of government entitlement programs. Its eventual repeal will harbor in the repeal of SS and MC shortly thereafter, after which the life support will be pulled from virtually all Federal Government entitlement programs, including eventually even military retirements and VA benefits I’m sure (or they will become such a clusterfuck to claim that they will be virtually worthless). By the time the Millennials come of age, the idea that the Federal Government should provide anything other than imperial “defense” (most of which will be further outsourced) will be completely repudiated. But I’m not sure there will even be a federal government by that time, so who in the hell knows.

it took me a long time to come to the same conclusions as you. i do find your comments reasonable and well written.
i was taught to certain standards as a child, standards that at this point in my life i do not necessarily agree with, which is sort of beside the point.
i think that there are habits of the mind, ways of thinking which influence people’s thought processes by which conclusions are reached. so…………….
me always questioning the status quo, i am always suspicious, perhaps it has become my own habit of mind, and maybe it is not good, whatever.

i could see both parties putting up younger candidates, i can definitely see a woman, i was a Hillary supporter before, not because i agreed with her, but because i thought she was enough of a crocodile to get things done.

what Kunstler is pointing out is that we no longer produce value-added products, and that the money from off-shoring is going to the top, where the wealthy basically use it to make life miserable for the lower classes. i have written what reforms would turn it around, but who the hell listens to me?

but then again, we are dealing with synergy, and bettering people’s lives could lead to more consumption, more people, so there you are. in a sad, perverse way a massive die-off may save the species. but there i go again, injecting value judgements into the analysis, old habits………….so sad.

in any case, i just don’t see how the monetary system can keep snowballing, maybe it can, but the ACA is going to dump massive obligations onto the budget. the people who didn’t have insurance? they didn’t have it because they couldn’t afford it, duh. requiring insurance doesn’t create the money, doesn’t give them jobs, so where will it come from? subsidies, massive subsidies, from taxes, from higher premiums.

the people of this country have been kicked around like dogs, at some point a dog will turn around and bite you, and a pack? we know about that.

Saw a nice piece on the ACA on PBS Newshour tonight. They were interviewing a young, uninsured 20 something, and asked her why she refused to get health insurance. Her refrain was one we’ hear more and more of in the coming years. “Why should I? I don’t need it. The only reason for forcing me into it is so my premiums can pay for someone else’s healthcare.” And that is indeed the crux of it. As conditions in the current term get more and more dire for the young (as they most definitely WILL) they will become less and less willing to fund what they view as the extravagant lifestyles of us aging Boomers. I hear more and more comments like this, even from young people I know personally. The coming generational schism is gonna be one for the ages, and it’s not gonna end well for those of us on the tail end of the baby boom.

Yes, I think HillBillary will run and do quite well with the FemiNazi demographic. But she’s a polarizing figure – never good in a presidential candidate where you’re essentially vying for the center – and of course she’ll be 3 years older before she even takes office. And she’s basically Obama redux, even associated with her own failed ACA fiasco, so I can’t imagine her getting too far. But then again, if the Repubes don’t find somebody who’s not completely insane to run, then who the hell knows? But I think they’re already grooming several people behind the scenes to step up to the plate, a la Ryan and Rubio or similar. And never say never. Old Teddy Cruz could still be a player if he’d tack to the center just a little bit. By then his recent failed debt showdown tactics will take on the nostalgic tint of a righteous crusade or some such nonsense. He’s definitely got the swagger to make a go of it if he can attract the money.

While the message is there, the people are not ready to truly embrace the ovens. I do think that life is going to take some interesting turns for the worse for everyone over 45 – 50 and it is going to get really nasty. The only way the boomers are going to hold on is by cutting a deal. My bet is that they are going to toss the disabled and elderly who are in nursing homes overboard.
Which might buy them a little time, maybe 5 years at most. By canceling SSDI and Medicaid, the Boomers will be able to keep the show on the road at least as long as they can. But, eventually the intergenerational warfare will catch up with them. By 2020 we will have a slimmed down federal power structure with a radically reduced reach. The culmination of the crisis will be a collapse of the US military. Withdraw from the Middle East, Europe and Asia will be welcomed by the local power elites, who have been resentful of US power for many years.

I think the collapse of the US military will be largely offset by high tech weapons. Drones, satellites, and other cyber stuff have largely made 20th century warfare obsolete already, especially when you consider that holding territory is no longer the primary aim. And they can be almost completely privatized to boot! Rumsfeld had it right after all: putting down constant “terrorist insurgencies” is much more lucrative and serves the primary, unstated purpose as well: to keep the populace perpetually terrorized. Surround the populace with wolves or pseudo wolves and just watch how compliant they become for their “protectors.”

And yep, the liquidation of the elderly, infirm, or merely poor will just be a continuation of Hitler’s final solution by other, better marketed means. Who knew back then that the funny little Chaplin looking guy would be just a preview of coming attractions?

It was about 2006 when the real estate values began their slow slide to a crash. I was a real estate agent working in and invested in the Las Vegas market. It was worse here than in Detroit. By 2011 100,000 people got up and left las Vegas. So during that time I got to see the fortunes of a great many people change overnight. I saw millionaires lose every penny they had. Suicide was an option that more than a few took. Then the carpetbaggers showed up in town with deep pockets paying cash on foreclosed properties. Since no loans could be made to willing and able buyers the only buyers were the vultures. I saw investment properties that I’d sold in 2007 for $560,000 go for 150K at auction.

In the last few years the banks, propped up by Quantitative easing, are holding back thousands of foreclosures in a vain attempt to trickle them on to the market and use historically low interest rates to try and re-inflate the bubble. But as the Dollar fades as the global reserve currency the swindles will come undone with increasing frequency leading to our next and most devastating financial collapse which could happen next week but Obama is trying to put it off until after the 2016 election. Who would want what’s coming on their watch? It goes without saying that every heroic effort imaginable will be made to keep the present system igoing until it can’t which might be a long and miserable ride down for a lot of people. For most of us we better hope it hangs on for at least another decade. When law and order leaves it’s going to be ugly if history is any guide.

Mike is right of course. WE are playing a very dangerous game in this nation. First, we are not solvent. We know that, the Chinese know that and just about everyone else does too. The problem goes back to : who will tell the people and what will they say ? President Obama can’t even tell the truth about his measly Obama care program. How the hell is he going to tell the truth about the debt bomb. Truth be told, he is not going to tell the real story, the real truth about the debt or anything else. Let’s get real here. OBAMA is going to the last elected president of the united states in its current form. the stupid liars in Washington don’t have a clue. They will in all likelihood be in hiding and paying someone a million dolllars to protect their sorry asses. They do not get it.
When we write the history of the United States many years from now, they will say that it was all a joke played on the citizenry.

what is interesting here is not whether a scenario like this will ever happen
what is interesting is that teen lit has ideas such as this floating around.
inside, outside, us and them.
life is a battle, the kids know exactly what assault rifle they would like to have, just waiting the good old Call of Duty.http://www.callofduty.com/ghosts/media/gameplaylaunch

That said, all of this is highly romanticized as well, all the better to make it more palatable for young impressionable (read: horny) viewers. But I do agree that there seems to a be a rather fatalistic cast of mind among the young these days. Gonna be a bitch when they turn on the last of us aging boomers and put us down like the tired old dogs we will be. I expect there will be no mercy whatsoever coming our way when they do.

And I guess the best remedy for that scenario is for us all to recant our reliance on the industrial medical complex and its myriad of “cures” for what ails us. At worst, we’ll die of natural causes brought on by the industrial monoculture lifestyles we all live. At best, we’ll actually thrive absent the burdens the modern pseudo-cure medical culture has imposed on us and actually be able to fight back.

The cholesterol myth has already been largely debunked, but still the sales machine persists. As do countless others. Just another example of the capitalist marketing machine treating people as mere consumers and people naively buying into the myth.

of course none of this has anything to do with the ACA taking effect, and the fact that the drug companies cut that sweetheart deal.
the other thing to watch is if the rate of anti-depressant use rises, with the concomitant side effects,
finally watched “The Purge” last night, nice family movie, the discussion wasn’t about the morality but the efficacy of the tactics.

You’d think the dumb bastards would have the good sense to just legalize pot already. A population full of stoners would be about as docile as you could get. Plus snack sales, internet and satellite TV, and follow-on health care revenues would boom as well. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

during rayguns term a report was authorized, came back for full legalization, report was disavowed. a tax of $10/ounce at that time would have paid the national debt in 3 years, all by itself, the entire debt.
legalization would kill the pharmaceutical industry, plus it would not please the New Puritans.
oddly enough, many right-wingers support legalization, it’s the supposed left which has some of the most rabid prohibitionists. even in CO, CA, and WA it is cloaked under the medical umbrella.
i have given up on this sort of thing, don’t imbibe.
caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol, (and sugar) these vices are legal.

i liked “The Purge”, i avoided it, but when the kids brought it home i watched.
yes, it’s trash culture, but it’s topical, and i believe relevant.
hell, much of what passes as intellectual is trash culture to my mind.
the Sistine Chapel was nothing but propaganda.

Found this comment over at NBL, with a most extraordinary link — a must-read !

Mac in MN Says:
November 14th, 2013 at 9:38 am

More folks seem to be dealing with their long suppressed sense that things just aren’t the same lately, as they ever were. But, those of us humans that exist in a sensory/perceptual realm that tells one that I’m the center of the universe, on a small place that conforms to the highly advanced concepts of Plane Geometry, about which the sun, moon, and the heavens rotate really have our work cut out for ourselves to really inhabit the larger description of the cosmos that is completly at odds with our sensory experience. IMO I’ll generalize the dilema to all of us. Throw in life’s Ups and Downs (both concepts are absolutly incorect linguistic constructions) and the need to satisfy Maslow’s lower levels of the pyramid, and we get the results of our Thermodynamic Imperitive.

I love the Yuppie’s Neuremberg Defence “I had to pay the mortgage!”

But the collapse is finding its way into unusual media out lets, like Murdok’s NY Times

The biggest problem climate change poses isn’t how the Department of Defense should plan for resource wars, or how we should put up sea walls to protect Alphabet City, or when we should evacuate Hoboken. It won’t be addressed by buying a Prius, signing a treaty, or turning off the air-conditioning. The biggest problem we face is a philosophical one: understanding that this civilization is already dead. The sooner we confront this problem, and the sooner we realize there’s nothing we can do to save ourselves, the sooner we can get down to the hard work of adapting, with mortal humility, to our new reality.

We are currently in denial as to the end of the west, it has started already in many places. The lack of leadership, the lack of vision and the total denial of the problems that we face in the impending sense of doom and total head in the sand thinking. One of my friends has already declared the end of the civilization and has moved back to his ranch.

when asked about the end of the west, the fellow citizen of rural Midwestern towns look at you like you are nuts. They have no clue about the end that is surely going to come crashing down on them. they would rather talk about the latest scandal involving the reality star they slavishly follow. How shortsighted do these sheep have to be ?

In defense of midwesterners, stoicism in the face of adversity (and drunkenness when they can’t maintain that) is their most prized character trait. Not that it always serves them well. But the truth is simply too overwhelming to accept for most: the death of their entire culture and way of life is at hand, and likely their own as well.

Not surprisingly, our ruling class shamelessly exploits the fact that most of them will never be able to accept that fact, which, given the available choices (party like there’s no tomorrow – because their isn’t – or begin the death march now), probably makes sense.

And the philosophic quandary is even worse. What to make of the fact that all you and yours have lived and died for has not only come to naught, but will be conclusively proven to have caused the end of current human civilization? In other words you embraced and imposed an insane suicidal lifestyle on the earth and its inhabitants, and then, fittingly, succumbed to it yourself. Hell of a legacy for most of us. If there is indeed a Christian God, I can’t imagine he’s going to be too forgiving for all that!

And we wonder why our leaders are congenital liars. They really have no choice, given the magnitude of our predicament. Tell the truth and you’ll simply never get elected (hell, you’ll damn near get lynched!).

The grand take away from most of these comments is that there’s some overwhelming ennui emanating from aging American men who take some delight in ever more dire predictions of doom.

Perhaps living through a pregnancy would buck the lot of you up a bit. Help you see, perhaps, that the end of capitalist culture isn’t necessarily an apocalypse. It may be, but after reading comments here for a year or two, I’m betting on a whimper, not a bang.

Delight certainly, actually ecstatic and hoping for the fall sooner than later. Ennui is questionable and perhaps true. Not interested in living through a pregnancy although have lived through some fun times in fire fights, and at night they are especially entertaining. There are a few ladies that come here and it is my hope that you not only visit but add your 2 cents worth when ever the mood strikes you. You might have some new insights to add to the game. And game it is. You will note that by my nom de plume I am not fond of pregnancies anyway.

In the short term you’re probably be right. A whimper punctuated by a series of occasional much larger bangs. I’m not sure I take delight in it exactly, but I must admit it gives me some small satisfaction in seeing things that equally smart colleagues are completely (and apparently willingly) blind to. Small satisfaction that, but as good as it gets these days. And in the end, it’s the little things that sustain us.

But then again, I’m not very touchy feely, and I’m definitely not intending to live through any pregnancies again anytime soon.

That’s because, along with a great number of porn users, they had rewired the arousal pathways in their brains. “Pornography,” writes Doidge, “satisfies every one of the prerequisites for neuroplastic change,” – that is, the brain’s ability to form new neural circuitry….In the end, the result is what Doidge politely calls “potency problems”. Compulsive pornography users become unable to maintain erections. ~How Porn Is Rewiring Men’s Brains | The Telegraph (UK) | 15 Nov 2013

…“celibacy syndrome” is part of a looming national catastrophe. Japan already has one of the world’s lowest birth rates…the country is experiencing “a flight from human intimacy”… ~What happens to a country when its young people stop having sex? Japan is finding out | The Observer (UK) | 19 Oct 2013

Oh, what a tangled web we devise: When first we practice to city-lize!

“I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man.” ~Thomas Jefferson

they really screwed up that Camaro, with a straight six and a 5 speed i could have that thing getting 35 mpg on the high way, probably 20-25 in town.
for speed i wouldn’t want anything bigger than a 327. that’s my dream car, 1967 350 horse SS 327 Camaro.

Got pretty much my life savings tied up in it, but WTF was I saving it for anyway? More HP than a sane person (and I’m not) should be allowed, shitty gas mileage, the emissions are obscene, and the exhaust can be heard for a country mile or ten. But the acceleration is otherworldly and the fun factor is off the charts. I also have the luxury of driving it less than 5,000 miles per year (I ride the bus and/or walk to work), albeit VERY, VERY fast when I do, which probably all equals out to a whole lot less emissions or gas than any other typical American family unit uses. PLUS, I’m SINGLE!!! I don’t have the guilt of multiple future human consumption units brought into this world on my account hanging over my head. Might be my thoroughly repugnant personality, I don’t know. But somehow I’ve managed to avoid that curse.

Do I feel guilty about any of it? I must admit, at first I did. But then I got over it, thanks to all of the above. And WTF anyway! It’s obvious that burning through the remaining oil stocks is our destiny. Who am I to stand in the way of the fun? Might even be doing future generations a favor by forcing them to cope with their destiny just that little bit sooner.

yeah, yeah, well………………………….
did you you know you can save 15% or more on car insurance at geico.com?
i saw Sox & Martin, Don Prudhome, Big Daddy, back in the day.
pure bhp, stopped fascinating me a while back. i would have kept that Camaro stock (not yours necessarily).
if i had the money, which i don’t, i would love to have an old fastback Mustang or Camaro set up for road racing.
Soon i will attempt something more relevant.

This one’s a Challenger, but yeah, I get your point. It’s overkill to the max. But on the flip side, I’m just renting it as far as I’m concerned. I’ve already had numerous offers for it, so I think I’ll drive it (and pay on it) for a few years then sell it off to one of the numerous rich people up here who can actually pay cash for something like that without breaking a sweat. I always wanted a REALLY fast car, so now I can cross that one off my bucket list. And to tell you the truth, the HP is nice, but it’s like anything else. You get used to it pretty damn fast and then it’s no big deal. But it’s also going to be exceedingly rare, as Chrysler has already announced that the giant Hemi’s are on the extinction list once again. More fuel efficient turbo 4s and 6s are all the rage now, so the mega V-8’s numbers are endangered once again. But that’s good for those of us who’re holding.

For what it’s worth, Motiva PE in Albuquerque, the guys churning my Challenger on the dyno link above, also have an original ’67 Shelby GT350 with a hand signed dash plaque by Carroll Shelby a few years before he died sitting on their showroom floor. As a collectors item it’s probably worth ~$.5M or so I would guess. As an actual fast street car, it’s a dated piece of junk. Time and technology roll on and wait for no one. Until they don’t at least. Cheers!

By the way, funny you should mention a ’67 350HP 327 Camaro. First car I ever owned, by way of a story.

Bought a ’67 Powerglide 327, 2 bbl, 210 HP,Camaro on the advice of my divorced mom in 1974 because she didn’t trust me with the 396/375 Chevelle SS I actually wanted for a similar price. Even enlisted my step dad in the “encouragement.” Needless to say, the Powerglide went to shit within a month, and once the transmission was out of the picture, I convinced her that replacing the entire engine/trans was the way to go and that I could do it, which I did. Presto/chango, Corvette 327/350 and Muncie 4 spd went in. Good fun, even allowing for my thoroughly amateurish mechanic talents at the time. Beat the shit out of the car (as we drug addled teeneagers of the age were want to do) for a few years and moved on.

Bottom line: The “small blocks” back in the day don’t hold a candle to either the big blocks of their day, or ANY of the modern day “standard block” V-8s. ESPECIALLY once you consider forced induction. The torque available from modern engines is simply INCREDIBLE by ANY standard!!!

The simple fact is that everyone, women included are going to suffer through this crash of the system that has not worked for anyone but the one percenters. If you truly want to face a challenge then try to live with compounding disabilities. It is going to end in a bang because the system will fight to protect the rich and the powerful. The only way that the rich were able to accumulate the wealth was by violence and theft and they ware not going to just hand it over to the rest of us. Much blood be spilled by the rich in order to try to retain their wealth.

No , it won’t be a whimper and this is not about men or women…. It is about people. People trying to find a way thru this mess.

The even SIMPLER fact is that it WILL be by a whimper, and it WILL be by people just like you and me (mostly me), and it WON’T be just due to the efforts of the 1% (although they will, justifiably, hold most of the bag), but it WILL be due to ALL of our collective efforts.

On the plus side, it will be a collective effort. On the downside, it will be a collective effort. In the end, it will be a collective effort. THAT is the lesson.

People like us create “systems.” The “gods” we likewise create stand aside and marvel at our smarts/stupidity.

If you reach back in your memory
A little bell might ring
‘Bout a time that once existed
When money wasn’t king
If you stretch your imagination
I’ll tell you all a tale
About a time when everything
Wasn’t up for sale

There was this cat named Johnny
Who loved to play and sing
When money wasn’t king

We’d all get so excited when
John would give a show
We’d raise the cash between us
And down the road we’d go
To hear him play that music
It spoke right to my soul
Every verse a diamond
Every chorus gold
The sound was my salvation
It was only everything
Before money became king

Well I ain’t sure how it happened
And I don’t know exactly when
But everything got bigger
And the rules began to bend
And the TV taught the people
How to get their hair to shine
And how sweet life can be
If you keep a tight behind
And they raised the cost of living
And how could we have known
They’d double the price of tickets
To go see Johnny’s show

So we hocked all our possessions
And we sold a little dope
And went off to rock and roll

We arrived there early
In time to see rehearsal
And John came out and lip-synched
His new lite beer commercial
And as the crowd arrived
As far as I could see
The faces were all different
There was no one there like me

They sat in golden circles
And waiters served them wine
And talked through all the music
And paid to John paid little mind
And way up in the nosebleeds
We watched him on the screen
They’d hung between the billboards
So cheaper seats could see

Johnny rock that golden circle
An all those VIP’s
And that music that had freed us
Became a tired routine
And I saw his face in close-up
Trying to give it all he had
And sometimes his eyes betrayed him
You could see that he was sad
And I tried to rock on with him
But I slowly became bored
Could that man on stage
With everything
Somehow need some more?

There was no use in pretending
No magic left to hear
All the music gave me
Was a craving for lite beer
As I walked out of the arena
My ears began to ring
And money became king

One more night, God I’ve had to fight
To keep my line of sight on what’s real
One more day I fear I’ve lost my way
I don’t know how to say what I feel
Someone better hurry I’m all alone
And I keep breaking down
Breaking down, you know?
No one ever taught me to be on my own
And I keep breaking down
Breaking down, you know?

One more night my eyes reflect the light
In the distance something bright appears
One more day it’s too hard to explain
What goes on in my brain is not clear

Someone better hurry I’m all alone
And I keep breaking down
Breaking down, you know?
No one ever taught me to be on my own
Yeah and I keep breaking down
Breaking down, you know?

So hold on one more night
Hold out one more day
Hold on one more night
Hold out one more day

There’ll be one more night and things will be made right
Again I’ll hold you tight my dear
One more day and I’ll collect my pay

I think I’ve posted this link before, but it seems apropos once again given the season and the approaching winter solstice. Seems to me at least to have a peculiarly Siberian bent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXj0dF7LAyE